Agios is a biopharmaceutical company passionately committed to applying our scientific leadership in the field of cellular metabolism to transform the lives of patients with cancer and rare genetic diseases.

Cambridge, MA -- March 11, 2010 -- Agios Pharmaceuticals, the leading biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing novel drugs in the rapidly emerging field of cancer metabolism, today announced the appointment of William Kaelin Jr., M.D., to its scientific advisory board. Dr. Kaelin currently serves as a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kaelin's laboratory focuses on tumor suppressor genes and the normal functions of the proteins they encode.

"It is truly exciting to have Dr. Kaelin become a part of the Agios scientific advisory board. His pioneering insights in molecular oncology have changed the field, and he will be an outstanding addition to our SAB," said David Schenkein, M.D., Chief Executive Officer, Agios.

Dr. Kaelin received his M.D. from Duke University in 1982 and was a house officer in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was a medical oncology clinical fellow at Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) and a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. David Livingston, where he began his studies of tumor suppressor proteins. He became an independent investigator at DFCI in 1992 and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator in 1998.

About Cancer MetabolismCancer metabolism is a new and exciting field of biology that provides a novel approach to treating cancer. Cancer cell metabolism is marked by profound changes in nutrient requirements and usage to ensure cell proliferation and survival. Research in the field has demonstrated that cancer cells become addicted to certain fuel sources and metabolic pathways. In cancer, this metabolic reprogramming is coordinated with proliferative signaling and regulated by the same oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes to ensure efficient proliferation. Glycolysis (sugar metabolism), fatty acid metabolism and autophagy (self metabolism) are three pathways shown to play a critical role in cancer metabolism. Identifying and disrupting certain enzymes in these, and perhaps other, metabolic pathways provides a powerful intervention point for discovery and development of cancer therapeutics.

About Agios PharmaceuticalsAgios Pharmaceuticals is the first biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel therapeutics in the emerging field of cancer metabolism. To support and drive these efforts, Agios is building a robust platform integrating cancer biology, metabolomics, biochemistry and informatics to enable target and biomarker identification. Agios??? capabilities to interrogate differential cellular metabolism of diseased cells relative to normal cells may also be applicable to other therapeutics areas including autoimmune, inflammatory and neurological diseases. To date, Agios has put in place a world-class scientific team of more than 60 people, built a fully integrated cell metabolism platform within the largest research laboratory dedicated to cancer metabolism, and created an emerging product development pipeline of novel cancer therapeutics. The Company's founders represent the core thought leaders in the field of cancer metabolism, responsible for key advances, insights and discoveries in the field. Agios Pharmaceuticals is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For more information, please visit the company's website at www.agios.com.